AMD vs Intel

[tabuburn]

It's only the XBOX that reserves 2 cores for the OS, the PS4 doesn't do that, which is frankly another incentive to avoid the XBOX.

I've tried explaining threading to PCBudgetSolutions yesterday, that's not how it works, core efficiency/performance doesn't counter balance threading, it doesn't work like that in games, only in number crunching programs where you see that to an extent.

If a game engine is designed to go wide (more threads) it will require those set amount of threads to work properly, if you run that engine on 2 CPUs with identical performance, one with 4 cores & the other with 8, it'll run faster on the 8 core, because threading isn't variable in an engine (except in very few circumstances) it's a constant, so it expects those threads to be available, if they're not it loses efficiency which in turn affects performance.

That's a good point. I still think a wait and see approach might be more conservative since we do not yet know how the developers will code their games for the next gen consoles. I think it might be a given that not all of them will totally use all those resources, seeing as games are still split between CPU-intensive and GPU-intensive. There will also be some devs that might opt for Ubisoft's move to code on PC first then trickle it down to the consoles and we don't know what hardware they'll use to code it to seeing as some of the XBone's demos were using Intel and NVIDIA hardware.

An interesting thing that I'm keeping watch is how Intel's Hyperthreading tech will perform if games will be more multi-threaded since in media creation applications, which are multi-threaded, they perform quite well.

[TechFan@ic]

That's a good point. I still think a wait and see approach might be more conservative since we do not yet know how the developers will code their games for the next gen consoles. I think it might be a given that not all of them will totally use all those resources, seeing as games are still split between CPU-intensive and GPU-intensive. There will also be some devs that might opt for Ubisoft's move to code on PC first then trickle it down to the consoles and we don't know what hardware they'll use to code it to seeing as some of the XBone's demos were using Intel and NVIDIA hardware.

An interesting thing that I'm keeping watch is how Intel's Hyperthreading tech will perform if games will be more multi-threaded since in media creation applications, which are multi-threaded, they perform quite well.

I agree, although I don't think that the XBOX game demos run on the PC hardware are a fair representation for games that are designed specifically for the next-gen hardware, they're more or less games developed on the current gen engines & simply ported to the newer consoles.

Something like Thief (4) I believe will be a very accurate representation for a game developed & tailored for the next-gen hardware, it's a PS4/XBOX1 + PC only title, so it's to safe to assume that it's being developed on a platform made specifically for the new hardware.

I'm also very interested in seeing how Intel's hyperthreading stacks up to physical integer cores, currently it's very close & it trades blows on per-workload basis.

[iswedishleafs]

You can get an FX 8320 for $150 which is identical to the FX 8350 but only slightly underclocked from the factory, the FX 8320 tends to overclock only 100-200mhz less than the FX 8350 but it's quite a bit cheaper.

The performance difference from 6 to 8 cores can range from very small to significant & considering the price difference is very small I tend to recommend the 8 core FX 8320 more often & because of the 8 core CPU design of both the PS4 & the XBOX1 .

 

ok you convinced me, i want an AMD chip now, but there is one thing holding me back. I really like the motherboard i picked out. I chose the msi z87 g-45, i chose this board because the amount of usb 3.o ports is something i look for, and the built in audio is really cool. I also like it because of how sexy it looks. Do you know if there is any motherboard on the AMD side that is similar to this board(or even equal). If there is an msi one i would prefer that because i plan on buying a msi gpu  

[TechFan@ic]

ok you convinced me, i want an AMD chip now, but there is one thing holding me back. I really like the motherboard i picked out. I chose the msi z87 g-45, i chose this board because the amount of usb 3.o ports is something i look for, and the built in audio is really cool. I also like it because of how sexy it looks. Do you know if there is any motherboard on the AMD side that is similar to this board(or even equal). If there is an msi one i would prefer that because i plan on buying a msi gpu  

The MSI gaming series boards haven't made it to the AMD side yet, if you like the overall look of the MSI Gaming boards & good on-board audio then you might be interested in the Asus 990FX Crosshair V Formula.

If you want an all round good board with all the features you will ever need consider the MSI GD80 or the Asus M5A99FX Pro.

Gigabyte has also refreshed their 990FX UD3 board with a much beefier cooling system & a sleeker design expect the Rev.4 to be available soon.

I would personally recommend going with the Asus M5A99FX & buying a dedicated sound card that's going to be better than any on-board audio implementation.

 

[tabuburn]

I agree, although I don't think that the XBOX game demos run on the PC hardware are a fair representation for games that are designed specifically for the next-gen hardware, they're more or less games developed on the current gen engines & simply ported to the newer consoles.

Something like Thief (4) I believe will be a very accurate representation for a game developed & tailored for the next-gen hardware, it's a PS4/XBOX1 + PC only title, so it's to safe to assume that it's being developed on a platform made specifically for the new hardware.

I'm also very interested in seeing how Intel's hyperthreading stacks up to physical integer cores, currently it's very close & it trades blows on per-workload basis.

Apparently, the PS4's CPU will be just like the XBone's in that only 6 of the 8-cores will be given to developers. The other 2-cores will be reserved for its OS.

 

As an interesting side-note: it turns out that just 6 cores will be available to developers, the remaining two are reserved for operating system usage.

Source: http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/PC-Leading-Crew-Next-Generation-Platforms

[Lays]

I agree, although I don't think that the XBOX game demos run on the PC hardware are a fair representation for games that are designed specifically for the next-gen hardware, they're more or less games developed on the current gen engines & simply ported to the newer consoles.

Something like Thief (4) I believe will be a very accurate representation for a game developed & tailored for the next-gen hardware, it's a PS4/XBOX1 + PC only title, so it's to safe to assume that it's being developed on a platform made specifically for the new hardware.

I'm also very interested in seeing how Intel's hyperthreading stacks up to physical integer cores, currently it's very close & it trades blows on per-workload basis.

 

 

Well yeah but.. Even with games that are optimized for amd/nvidia right now, it doesn't really make a "huge" difference, usually only a couple fps from what I've seen in some of linus's videos. It doesn't make a big difference until the lower-tier gpu's I think.

[TechFan@ic]

Well yeah but.. Even with games that are optimized for amd/nvidia right now, it doesn't really make a "huge" difference, usually only a couple fps from what I've seen in some of linus's videos. It doesn't make a big difference until the lower-tier gpu's I think.

It makes a huge difference.

Optimizations can boost a 400$ card to match or even beat a 650$ card.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/29236-amd-takes-on-nvidia-in-a-funny-video-the-fixer/?p=373112